1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic camera, and, more particularly, to a photographic camera with a feature of letting a photographer perceive improper camera holding that results in unsuccessful picture shooting.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, modern compact photographic cameras for use with, in particular, 135 format films incorporate various automatic features, such as automatic focusing, automatic exposure control, automatic firing of built-in electronic flashes, etc. which allow even beginners to take successful pictures. While, such a full-automatic photographic camera is easy to use, it is neither always infallible nor secures successful results. One of the most frequent causes of unsuccessful pictures taken by the automatic photographic camera is a partial or entire interception of light from and/or toward a subject traveling through a window of, for instance, an automatic exposure control system, an automatic focusing system or a built-in electronic flash, with a photographer's finger 67 or fingers 67. For instance, as illustrated in FIG. 28, if a photographer's finger 67 impedes or covers at least partly a window glass 17 of a built-in electronic flash of a photographic camera 10 held by both hands during photographing, the electronic flash with the window thus covered does not provide a uniform distribution of flash light on an aimed subject, resulting in a printed picture partly underexposed. If a window that is partly or entirely impeded or covered by a photographer's finger 67 during photographing is either one or both of windows 12 and 14 of an active type of automatic focusing system, a precise focusing is not achieved. Further, if a window 9 of an automatic exposure control system behind which a photoelectric cell (not shown) is disposed is partially impeded or covered by a photographer's finger during photographing, a correct exposure is not achieved. Attention has been given to various structural approaches relating to eliminating such mis-photographing, and various efforts have been made to prevent inadvertent coverage of a flash window of an electronic flash built-in the camera in order to improve utilization of the automatic compact camera.
One such effort is that described in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 61-129 or Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-188437. The approach used was to form fine dents or projection on a camera body around the flash window so as to let the photographer perceive, through a feeling of touch, that the photographer's finger is placed in close proximity to the flash window and, consequently, that the finger must be moved. Alternatively, an obstacle is formed so as to prevent the photographer's finger from being placed on, or in close proximity to, the flash window.
While these structures as described in the publications may have advantageous over the prior art, nevertheless, various constraints must be imposed upon outer camera appearances and/or the compactness of photographic cameras. In addition, because these dents and projections, or an obstacle, of such a photographic camera do not always give photographers a distinct perception of improper camera holding, the photographer sometimes unintentionally disregards a partial impediment of the flash window with the photographer's finger, resulting in an unsuccessful picture.
Various kinds of sensors that detects contact of a human body thereto are well known from, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications Nos. 50-66774, 59-218181 and 4-25219. However, these sensors include complicated circuits and are not suitable for pragmatic application to compact photographic cameras.